Creating The Best Control Room Computer

We’ve been fortunate to have a number of in-depth conversations with manufacturing professionals all over the world who are using thin clients to help optimize every aspect of their production facilities. We had an overwhelming number of requests to add a 4-5 independent display system to our ThinManager-Ready lineup to act as a centralized, control room management device that would allow operators to monitor their entire line from one location.

We took the feedback and created a multi-display thin client system specifically designed with control room applications in mind. The new TM600 Industrial Five Display Thin Client, which has been certified ThinManager® Ready by ACP, is a dependable, easy to install thin client designed for the specific needs of manufacturing pros. Here is what they asked for:

Reliability – When you’re monitoring and controlling your entire operation from one room, it’s imperative that vital performance information, video feeds and analytics are available and easy to access at all times. Industrial components and an all metal enclosure are must-haves in any control room computer.

Small Form Factor – While a control room environment generally offers a bit more installation space to work with than the terminals on the production floor, it’s clear that space is at a premium in every part of a production facility. The hulking towers of old are simply aren’t suited for the modern control room.

Multi-Display – Monitoring multiple applications, or virtualizing multiple desktops from a single thin client that’s able to support 4 or more independent displays simultaneously, is the key feature for control room applications. With the number of large, high resolution panels and monitors available, it’s a natural question to ask “why not use 2 large monitors instead of 4-5 smaller ones?”. The answer: failures and flexibility. If one smaller panel fails, it’s much easier to replace quickly with minimal impact. Multiple smaller displays allow users to organize the monitors in a variety of configurations to best suit their needs. Multiple displays give control room operators the flexibility to view and manage whatever data they need and multi-task effectively.

The team at ACP recently wrote about the industry need for multi-display thin client systems, detailing the benefits they offer for users implementing ThinManager software.